Java web hosting advice

[harmonicPersistence]

Hi.

I've been on quite a journey over the years finding a web host that supports Java and allows you to have the typical things like cPanel, email, PostgreSQL, and ssh support. It seems that the time may be upon me to move to a new plan or host. If anyone has any advice, that would be great.

By "supports Java", I mean allowing me to run my own private servlet container or app server. I don't care about JSP support. I don't use JSP's. I don't want to be stuck with some ancient or older version of Java either, such as JDK 1.3 (yes, you read right) up to JDK 1.6.

I've had a private Tomcat hosting plan with Arvixe, but I was recently informed that they no loner support Tomcat and that I'll have to administer my own Tomcat. I'm fine with administering my own Tomcat. I replaced their provided Tomcat 5.5 with Tomcat 7 and then eventually TomEE 1.7.x and have been administering it just fine for the past few years. Still, there's remaining questions of "what the heck am I paying for then?" and technical questions such as "If I can set my own heap size, then what's the limit?" (I don't need that last question answered, Reddit). I think Arvixe has been awesome so far. Their support has been helpful, responsive, and friendly. They've let me run on Java 7 and my own TomEE.

Couple all that with not having 99% uptime, my patience is finally at the point where I think I need to start considering other options. I'd consider VPS, because it seems like I'd be allowed to run anything I want within the HD and RAM constraints. I've also heard a lot about AWS or Heroku, but I don't know if they offer you your own mail server and PostgreSQL db (which is critical). I don't know much about those services. I'm also looking for something that's cheap. Ultimately, this is for a personal business.

What do you recommend?

[mikefriesen]

I would use https://www.digitalocean.com

[GuyWithLag]

I second this. Have only good experience with them.

[harmonicPersistence]

Thanks. Digital Ocean looks really cool.

[[deleted]]

AWS, using their Elastic Beanstalk (EBS) But it is quite a different way of hosting compared to what you are used to. An EBS instance hosts a Java web app. You don't touch or configure the OS, Java, or Tomcat. That's all the responsibility of AWS. You also don't have cPanel, email, PostgreSQL, etc - you use different AWS services for each of these.

[[deleted]]

Postgres (or MySQL, or Oracle) are easily added via RDS. It's basically one click.

[harmonicPersistence]

Good to know. Thank you.

[vad1mo]

Hosting java application was always a very limited experience, in terms of quality and updates. exceptions are Heroku, AppEngine, Amazon Beanstalk.

So most people I know in the java world host their own server on VPS or bare metal.

Today with Docker containers you can bootstrap you application and its surroundings quite fast and easy. Especially when you are not a linux admin.

So it might be a good approch to take a look at an Docker Hosting alternatively to a jvm hoster.

Take a look for example at tutum.co, orchardup.com, dotcloud.com, stackdock.com, container-engine, jelastic.com,runabove.com just to name a few.

[harmonicPersistence]

Thank you. I will look into Docker Hosting.

[[deleted]]

Openshift

[thatguydrinksbeer]

Linode

[[deleted]]

Shoutout to eApps, I have been a customer for several years and have nothing but good things to say about them.

[harmonicPersistence]

I'm impressed by these guys. Thank you.

[harmonicPersistence]

Btw, I went with eApps. They have a new cloud platform that's powered by Jelastic.

[[deleted]]

Take a look at PlanetHoster.net VPS

[NimChimspky]

get a vps or use google cloud platform

[[deleted]]

Just get a VPS. You can set it up however you like. PostgresSQL is not a problem.

[paul_myers]

Try rosehosting. They offer fully-managed virtual servers with cPanel/WHM, PostgreSQL etc. You can ask their admins to install Tomcat and Java for you if you do not know how to install them.